Light ray fluctuation and lattice refinement of simplicial quantum gravity

Abstract

In several approaches of non-perturbative quantum gravity, a major outstanding problem is to obtain results valid at the infinite lattice refinement limit. Working with Lorentzian simplicial quantum gravity, we compute light ray fluctuation probabilities in 3D and 4D across different lattices. In a simplified refined box model with the Einstein–Hilbert action, numerical results show that lattice refinement does not simply suppress or simply enhance light ray fluctuations, but actually drives very wide and very narrow light probability distributions towards intermediate ones. A comparison across lattices and across couplings reveals numerical hints at a lattice refinement fixed point associated with a universality class of couplings. The results fit the intuition that quantum spacetime fluctuations reflected by light ray fluctuations start wild microscopically and become mild macroscopically. The refined box model is limited by the assumption of a rigid frame at all scales. The present results suggest further studies around the zero-coupling limit to relax the simplifying assumptions of the model.